The Battle of Banana Breads

banana bread

(Original Post Date:  July 19, 2010) Recently, my in-laws were visiting from overseas – and one of the things they love (apparently) is fruit.  They bought tons and tons of fruit – papayas, apples, bananas… and after dropping them off at LAX for their return flight, we came home to the fragrance of brown spotted [...]

Rustic Blueberry Tart

rustic blueberry tart

(Original Post Date:  July 8, 2010) Last week, I was tempted by a sign at the local market advertising blueberries for $1/box.  After purchasing a few, I thought, this might be a good time to make blueberry recipes.  Next time, I’ll post the fabulous blueberry muffins that I made for breakfast a few days ago. [...]

Mika’s Peach Pie

Peach Pie

(Original Post Date:  June 22, 2010) So as a follow up to my recipe on Peach Jam, here’s another favorite peach recipe.  This pie goes really nicely with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream. Peach Pie Filling: 4-5 c. sliced, peeled peaches 2 T. lemon juice 1/4 c. flour 1/4 c. cornstarch 1 c. sugar [...]

Island Style Mango Bread

Here is my updated version of the Mango Bread.  (You can see that the top of the loaf is domed instead of being flat.)

(Original Post Date:  June 7, 2010) I love mangoes.  But have you ever heard the phrase, “Your eyes are bigger than your stomach”?  Apparently, that was me.  I was at the Asian market, and bought this huge box of mangoes.  I ate about half of them within a week… but the remaining mangoes were starting [...]

If you can’t kill that Peach tree, make Peach Jam.

Homemade Peach Jam

(Original Post Date:  May 23, 2010) My friend Connie and her husband Toan have a peach tree in their backyard – a tree which produces tons and tons of peaches each spring and summer – all of which end up falling to the ground and rotting into a huge sticky mess (for Toan to clean [...]

Apple Pie Amalgam

Julian Style Apple Pie

(Original Post Date:  April 10, 2010) On Easter Sunday, we decided to take a day trip out to the historic mountain town of Julian, about 1.5 hours East of San Diego and just West of the Anza Borrego Desert.  If you haven’t heard of Julian – well, they are pretty famous for their apple pie. The [...]